WASHINGTON — Congressional Democrats on Sunday were weighing options for tight government control of the crippled American auto industry, including the possible creation of an oversight board made up of five Cabinet secretaries and the head of the Environmental Protection Agency, and led by an independent chairman or “car czar” to be named by President Bush.

While the form of oversight was still being negotiated late Sunday, the talks made clear the extent to which the auto companies would have to submit to substantial government supervision to receive a taxpayer-financed bailout.

Under one proposal, the board would direct the drastic reorganization plans that the auto companies have said they were willing to undertake in exchange for billions of dollars in short-term government loans to keep them in business, according to a senior congressional aide.

If Chrysler, General Motors and Ford take a $15 billion federal bridge loan under consideration, they would be accountable to the government for nearly every move and for every transaction of $25 million or more.

The legislation would include stock warrants that would give the government an equity stake in the three firms, new limits on executive pay and a ban on stock dividends while the loans are outstanding.

A White House official declined late Sunday to comment on the Democratic proposal. The Bush administration has drafted its own proposal for managing the bailout.

Under the Democrats’ proposal, the companies would be eligible for low-interest loans Dec. 15. The loans would carry a 5 percent interest rate for the first five years, and 9 percent thereafter — the same terms offered to financial firms under the Treasury program.

The proposal could be put to a vote in Congress as soon as Tuesday. It then must win Senate Republicans’ approval.

President-elect Barack Obama, whose transition team has been involved in the auto talks, made starkly clear Sunday that any aid to the Big Three auto companies should not come without significant concessions by the firms.

“They’re going to have to restructure,” Obama said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “And all their stakeholders are going to have to restructure. Labor, management, shareholders, creditors — everybody is going to recognize that they … do not have a sustainable business model right now, and if they expect taxpayers to help in that adjustment process, then they can’t keep on putting off the kinds of changes that they, frankly, should have made 20 or 30 years ago.”

Still, the bill seemed likely to stop short of authorizing the broad powers that some lawmakers had urged to allow — what could have amounted to an out-of-court bankruptcy proceeding, in which the automakers creditors could be forced to accept reduced payments, labor contracts could be rewritten and executives could be summarily dismissed.

Sen. Christopher Dodd, the chairman of the Senate banking committee that is drafting the legislation, called on Sunday for the dismissal or resignation of Rick Wagoner, the chief executive of GM, which is the most imperiled of the automakers.

A GM spokesman, Steve Harris, said the company was willing to accept tough oversight in exchange for government aid but that it retained confidence in Wagoner.

But even if a bailout fails, the talks made clear that the incoming Congress intends to make the auto manufacturers pay a price far greater than the 5 percent interest on the emergency loans.

By the end of March, if any of the auto companies has failed to carry out plans to meet benchmarks establish by the new Obama administration, the emergency government loans could be called in for immediate repayment.

At a Chicago news conference, Obama reiterated his position that it would be unacceptable for the government to allow the auto industry to collapse. But using somewhat tougher language than he has before, he said it “makes no sense for us to shovel more money into the problem” if the companies are unwilling to re-tool to manufacture more fuel-efficient automobiles and ensure profitability.

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